In order to accelerate charged particles to high energies, many types of particle accelerators have been developed. One type of particle accelerator is a cyclotron. A cyclotron accelerates charged particles in an axial magnetic field by applying an alternating voltage to one or more dees in a vacuum chamber. The name dee is descriptive of the shape of the electrodes in early cyclotrons, although they may not resemble the letter D in some cyclotrons. The spiral path produced by the accelerating particles is normal to the magnetic field. As the particles spiral out, an accelerating electric field is applied at the gap between the dees. The radio frequency (RF) voltage creates an alternating electric field across the gap between the dees. The RF voltage, and thus the field, is synchronized to the orbital period of the charged particles in the magnetic field so that the particles are accelerated by the radio frequency waveform as they repeatedly cross the gap. The energy of the particles increases to an energy level in excess of the peak voltage of the applied RF voltage. As the charged particles accelerate, their masses grow due to relativistic effects. Consequently, the acceleration of the particles becomes non-uniform and the particles arrive at the gap asynchronously with the peaks of the applied voltage.
Two types of cyclotrons presently employed, an isochronous cyclotron and a synchrocyclotron, overcome the challenge of increase in relativistic mass of the accelerated particles in different ways. The isochronous cyclotron uses a constant frequency of the voltage with a magnetic field that increases with radius to maintain proper acceleration. The synchrocyclotron uses a decreasing magnetic field with increasing radius and varies the frequency of the accelerating voltage to match the mass increase caused by the relativistic velocity of the charged particles.